When the Rayne Falls
by yuyuyashasrain
Summary: A lot of stuff happens, and some people are involved, and there's a lot of lesbian drama and Voldemort craziness in the sequel. Romance haters, fear not. Sequel crosses over with the KX story after third year, so if you're still interested, read that too.
1. Miss Murder

"Fuck!"

Rayne's eyes flew open in alarm when her stepfather uttered the exclamation. She looked out the window of the dismal church they'd been living in, trying to tell the time by the light of the sun, but she knew it was no use; it was still raining. It was always raining lately. Always raining, always cold, always dark. Rayne was getting sick of it.

The clock on the wall told her it was a quarter after five, but the clock lied; its battery had long since been dead. What did it matter, what time it was, anyway? She was always working.

Rayne looked at Master to see what was wrong and found him counting the money he'd been forcing her to earn. She deduced that there wasn't enough, sighed inaudibly, and began preparing herself for another long day's work.

But much to her pleasant surprise -

"Go get me two cases of beer from the gas station," the rugged man demanded, suddenly picking her up by the front of her shirt and throwing her five feet away through a hole in the wall. His voice was scratchy from lack of use and his hair was thick and matted with grease. Somehow, after years without shaving, his facial hair had remained a steady five-o'-clock shadow.

"And don't take forever this time!" he shouted as Rayne stood without complaint and set off for the gas station a few blocks away. She took the shortcut across the main roads on the way there, and when she arrived, she told the cashier with convincing haste that someone outside was trying to steal gas. While he was distracted, she picked up two 24-packs and, after debating, $100 out of the register to appease Master. Then she snuck out the back door and hurried along the scenic route to avoid being seen.

Unlike with most eleven-year-olds, lying had absolutely no effect on Rayne, no matter how outrageous the tale, unless it was to her stepfather, which was something else entirely. Not many things that affected other children had affected Rayne in several years, though, having gone so long without contact from others her own age, Rayne had no way of knowing this. In any case, she didn't much care; she had other things to motivate her than a guilty conscience. For all she knew, she no longer had a conscience. If she were one to think about these things, she might have assumed it had been beaten out of her, but as she was Rayne and no one else, this didn't occur to her.

On her way past the park, a feeble, yet lively old voice called out to her and she stopped to see who it was. A venerable looking man with long, white hair and clothes too odd for words beckoned to her.

"Do you have a moment?" he asked politely. "I'd like a word, if you don't mind."

Though she knew she'd be in trouble for being late, Rayne heard herself oblige and set down her burden to show recognition. What choice did she have?

"Excellent," the man said, smiling. "Allow me to introduce myself, first of all. My name is Professor Albus Dumbledore, current headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I understand you received my letter."

"Oh, that..." Rayne's face fell the short distance it had left to fall, and again she wondered why anyone would bother sending a letter by way of an owl. Master, on the other hand, had seemed more enraged than confused by it. "Sorry about your bird. It caught my stepdad in a bad mood."

Professor Dumbledore nodded. "I'd heard," he said gravely. "Well, he's out of his misery now, poor old fellow. I regret sending him at all. I presume your stepfather disposed of the letter as well?"

Rayne nodded.

"Under normal circumstances, I'd have sent another owl, but I was afraid to risk it. The letter stated simply that though you lack the blood of a witch, you still possess the magical energy needed to be the equivalent of a very powerful one. Needless to say, I would be honored to have a student with your talent attend my school. My question to you is, are you willing to study?"

"Study... witchcraft?" Rayne inferred, slowly wrapping her brain around the idea. The knowledge that she must get back to Master seemed to increase her understanding out of sheer desperation to get this over with.

_He wants me to go this school, _she summarized. _Master would have my head if I left. I can't say no. What do I do?_

"I don't know," she said finally. "My stepdad... What would I have to do?"

"The only real sacrifice would be to spend the next seven years at my boarding school in Europe," Professor Dumbledore replied. "You would of course be able to return to your home over the summer, winter, and spring holidays, and by age seventeen you'll be finished altogether. I must tell you, it is not common practice to offer children so very far away the chance to attend Hogwarts. I sincerely hope you'll accept my proposal, as it is an extraordinary opportunity. Ultimately, though, the choice is yours, Miss Lakehurst."

Rayne frowned at the ground, trying to decide. She knew that by staying here, she was causing Master stress and taking up more of his space. On the other hand, by leaving, she would destroy his only source of income, and... well, she couldn't just say no to Professor Dumbledore. She couldn't.

"The term doesn't begin until September 1, if you need time to think it over," Professor Dumbledore informed her. "I assure you, if money is an issue, I have all that you'll need for supplies."

_That's great,_ Rayne thought,_ but that's not what I'm worried about._

"I'll tell you what, Miss Lakehurst," Professor Dumbledore said after a moment of silence. "Take the next few days to think about this. I shall return here this Friday morning at nine for your decision. Until next we meet."

Rayne blinked and he was gone.

Over the next few days, Rayne used meditation on the prospect of attending Hogwarts to escape the horrors of work. She imagined what it would be like if she went, how long it would take Master to find a way to stop her, and if Professor Dumbledore was even telling the truth about Hogwarts. A school of witchcraft in Europe? It sounded pretty far fetched, but at the same time, it sounded too true to be denied. Something about it just made sense, on some weird level Rayne couldn't explain if she tried.

Suppose the school was real. Why on earth would they want Rayne? She was stupid, she was weak, she was nobody. In every single thing she did, Master continued to prove how right he was in saying she was a complete waste of space. She kept miraculously finding ways to fuck everything up, and make herself look like an idiot in the process. She couldn't pinpoint any exact instances, but why would Master lie?

It occurred to Rayne, for all of half a second, that Professor Dumbledore was working for Master (to what end, she couldn't fathom, and she knew her weak slave brain could never understand), but then she remembered how the owl had been killed on sight, the letter shredded and burned.

She decided she might cause a lot less problems if she just stayed here (it wasn't exactly saying no if she never saw him again), and anyway her foster parents would be back from their vacation any day now.

For one glorious moment, she began to hope that she might be able to live with them again, once they realized she'd been taken, but the hope died down as soon as it came along. No way they would ever take her back, not after what happened. They knew too much about her, especially Mrs. Lincoln. She hated her for being different, for being low, for being her. Why would she take her back again, after spending all this time trying to put her in another home? The best thing she could do for Mrs. Lincoln now was grant her that. She had to stay here, out of the way, out of temptation. Even if she could go, Master would find her there, a continent away, an ocean apart, and beat her mercilessly for ever thinking she could escape him for good. Hogwarts was an inviting prospect, to be sure, but it was nothing more than a pipe dream. Who was she trying to kid?

Still, Rayne couldn't seem to stop herself from dreaming about going. She imagined what the school would look like and what they would study in class, whether she could even fake her way through casting spells or brewing potions or flying on a broomstick, whatever it was they did at Hogwarts. Once she amused herself by wondering if she would grow warts, and then questioned the truth of that particular stereotype. Professor Dumbledore didn't have any warts.

When she dreamed about the actual school, it was always different - sometimes it was a tall, black tower perched high on a mountain; others it was a fortress in the clouds; and once it was even halfway submerged in a lake, strange crustaceans and other sea life drifting past the classroom windows - but there was one thing these dreams always had in common: Wherever Hogwarts was, there the sun was also. Maybe she was wrong, but it felt to Rayne that if there really was such a place as Hogwarts, where the impossible happened on a daily basis, maybe she could go there and see a blue sky again. For all the months it had been raining, the sun didn't even seem real anymore, but it seemed like if the sun could be real, anything else could, including Hogwarts.

It was impossible for her to go, she knew, but the just the thought was sweet escape. Fantasies of being so far from here lulled her to sleep all week, and, though she didn't know it, it didn't rain once when she dreamed. The constant clouds scattered, and in what remained, one could clearly see the shape of a beautiful girl drifting through the heavens, gliding on the back of a flying oar.

Late Thursday night, four days after being approached by Professor Dumbledore in the park, Master left Rayne sitting alone in the church. She slept while he was away, coming to every now and then when she thought she'd heard him return, then drifting back into an uneasy doze. He returned several hours later, silhouetted in the dawning of the sun, covered in dirt and smelling like sweat and blood. He informed her proudly, standing there in the light of the cloaked moon, that he'd killed her foster parents and she would never see them again.

It took Rayne a moment to fully register what he'd said, due to the immense weight of the shock. True, they'd never been related in any way, but they were the only real family Rayne had ever known. Sure, they hated her, but... well, they had a reason; she was incurable! She was born against God and everything He stood for, but they still put up with her, and for that... she _loved_ them.

Slowly, dimly, Rayne felt her heart break, and in the emotional turmoil that followed, the world was growing dark. The ceiling melted into the floor, the walls were no more at all, and she felt herself falling as it all faded to black


	2. A New Beginning

Hours later, Rayne faded into reality and slowly opened her eyes, trying to adjust to the dim light. Her pupils contracted as much as they could as she sat up, her arms sore and a metallic taste in her mouth that was almost saccharine.

_That's blood,_ she realized. _That's _my _blood... I recognize that weird sweet taste. Did I bite my tongue or something?_

_There's really no need to go into any detail with that,_ the Voice replied.

It then occurred to Rayne, because she was no longer alone, just how lonely and scared she'd been without the Voice for the past year.

_Where were you? _she asked. _I needed you._

_I was here, I just couldn't talk to you. Remember the last time I spoke in front of Master?_

_Yeah, that's a beating I'll never forget._

_Rayne, we don't have time to waste; you've got five minutes!_

"Oh, shit..."

Immediately setting her questions for the Voice aside, she fled the scene as fast as her legs would carry her. In acting without thinking, backed into a corner as she was, she couldn't say why she suddenly thought it was okay to go; she just knew that Master was not here, and she had a chance, so she took it. Master wasn't even close; she could at least go and see the school she'd been dreaming about...

Just as Professor Dumbledore put his pocket watch away and turned to leave, Rayne ran through traffic toward him and called out, "Professor!" He stopped, turned around, and smiled at her. "I changed my mind," she gasped as she approached him. "I want to go."

"Excellent choice, Miss Lakehurst," he said, smiling warmly. "You'll have to do a bit of shopping, first of all. Professor?"

The woman standing beside Professor Dumbledore took a half-step forward and nodded at Rayne in greeting. She was tall and strict-looking, perhaps around fifty, with glasses and reddish, slightly graying hair tied back in a bun.

"Minerva, this young lady is Rayne Lakehurst. Miss Lakehurst, this is Professor McGonagall, the Transfiguration instructor at Hogwarts. She will be your escort to Diagon Alley so that you can buy your supplies. I have the list and the gold here."

Professor McGonagall accepted the drawstring pouch and the list from Professor Dumbledore and turned to Rayne.

"Come along, we've got a lot of shopping to do. We'll return around noon, I believe, Headmaster," she added to him, and he nodded.

"Very good. Until then, Minerva, Miss Lakehurst." With that, he disappeared.

Professor McGonagall then gripped Rayne's arm very tightly and Rayne looked up at her.

"Don't let go of me."

0-0-0-0-0

"That's everything," Professor McGonagall said three hours later, and picked up the new cat's cage. Ember was a black female with long fur and red eyes. She weighed thirteen and a half pounds and stood eleven inches at the shoulder, rather large for a cat in general, but perfectly healthy for a five-year-old Maine Coon.

"Let's head back, then," she said crisply. Rayne hoped they would find an easier way to do this; on the way there, they'd had to teleport to four different locations, where they stopped for a second or two before going again. She wasn't sure why they did this; she could only guess that the distance between Minnesota and anywhere in Europe was too great to travel all at once. However they'd done it, it was a terrible way to travel. Like being sucked through a dollhouse vacuum. Although some small part of her rather enjoyed the immense gravity and constriction of the moment, and secretly wished the suffocating blackness would endure a little longer, that part was too small to make her want to pursue this strange method in the future.

Luckily, all they had to do was walk back through the stone archway and through the back door of the Leaky Cauldron, the inn that normal people apparently couldn't see.

Professor Dumbledore stood waiting for them when they walked in. He smiled as they approached and offered Rayne transportation home to her stepfather.

"That's okay," Rayne said quickly, knowing that if she returned home for even one day, there was no way she could escape Master again. Quite apart from that, she hated to think of a return trip the same way she'd come. "I actually have relatives a couple blocks away; I'll just stay with them." Not at all plausible, of course, but if Professor Dumbledore was going to argue, she could just avoid him. She was good at evasion.

But Professor Dumbledore surprised her. He was quiet for a moment, taking hold of Rayne's gaze and not letting go. In her head a thousand images swam before her, unavoidably, of school life, of Mrs. Lincoln's shocking kindness, of work, of all kinds of tortures from Masters that Rayne refused to bring into focus. As her memories neared the present, she was reminded that she must never look a man directly in the eye - or anyone, for that matter, but especially not a man - and so she cast her eyes to the ground, heeding Master's unspoken command.

"If you're sure," he said finally. "Well, I must be off. Plenty to do. Your ticket and directions to the King's Cross train station are in your trunk with your supplies. Enjoy the rest of your vacation. Minerva?"

He offered her his arm and she took it.

"I expect to see you in the Great Hall on September 1," Professor Dumbledore said, and left when Rayne nodded.

When they disappeared, Rayne looked at Ember, sighed, and left the alley.

_Where do I go from here?_

A long time passed before Rayne found a good spot, and then she had to leave her trunk hidden in shadows while she went to make sure she knew the way to the train station. When she returned, Ember was sitting on top of her cage and twitching her tail.

"And the woman at that pet store thought you weren't magical," Rayne said to her, as she sat down against the wall and cradled her forehead in her hand. Ember meowed to get her attention. "Ember, I'm sorry, I don't have any food for you. Don't feel bad... I don't have any food for me either."

Ember hopped down gracefully, turned, and left through the broken window in the opposite wall.

_Rayne, go find her! What if you get in trouble?_

_Please, Voice. I know I'll get in trouble. But for tonight... can't I just curl up and lick the wounds I already have, without worrying about the ones I'll get tomorrow?_

_...Yeah. Go ahead._

0-0-0-0-0

On September 1, at around 10:30 (with absolutely no idea how she knew what time it was), Rayne left for the train station, dragging her extremely heavy trunk behind her. Just as she skulked out of the parking lot of the condemned apartment building, along came Ember, gliding up beside her in that weird way cats have of running without bouncing. Rayne smiled at her as she telekinetically lifted the trunk a few inches off the ground, so all Rayne had to do was direct it.

"Thanks, Ember. I'll give you your treats when we get on the train, okay?"

Ember meowed and followed her the rest of the way to the King's Cross station, where Rayne dug her ticket out of her jacket. It said Platform Nine and Three-Quarters. After figuring out that "platform" must mean the same thing as "gate" in airports, Rayne set off looking for it, naturally assuming that it was just after Platform Nine. When she got there, however, she didn't see anything between Nine and Ten. Now what?

All she could really do was try to figure this out logically. Maybe there were more trains on the other side of the station, and one of them was off Nine and Three-Quarters, except she had no idea how to get over there. She took a shot in the dark and very quietly asked Ember if she could help her with this, since Ember was the one who'd had experience with witches. Ember meowed and looked in the direction of several people, many with owls in cages, strolling casually toward Platforms Nine and Ten. She watched in confusion, then awe, as they all lined up and walked right through the solid wall between the two. This had to be it.

_But... isn't this supposed to be kept a secret?_ Rayne asked the voice. _With all the looking around the professors were doing, I just assumed..._

_Who cares? Just go._

_You know how much of a fuck-up I am; I'll end up doing it wrong._

_You can't do it wrong; just walk through it._

_How the hell do you know?_

_When have I ever lied to you? Have a little faith in the voice in your head._

Unconvinced, Rayne waited for her turn and walked up to the wall, Ember trotting along beside her, and they did indeed pass through it, only to find themselves outdoors at a railway with a long, scarlet train called the Hogwarts Express. Oddly enough, Rayne was only mildly surprised that it actually worked, and not at all relieved. She figured she hadn't really wanted to succeed here, scared as she was that Master would still find her.

"I guess we're here," she said to Ember. "Let's go find a seat."

She worked her way through the crowd of parents and children and younger siblings to climb aboard the train. There was an empty room on one of the last cars, so Rayne took it, dug Ember's cat-flavored treats out of her trunk, and gave her a few.

"Do cats taste good?" Rayne commented, as Ember finished her treats and curled up in Rayne's lap. Her only reply was a glare that clearly stated, "Pet me," so Rayne did.

A while later, the door opened and in walked a dark-haired boy with broken glasses and bright green eyes. Maybe it was just his aura of something similar to fear, but it almost seemed like he had a lot in common with Rayne. He was just securing his trunk in the rack above them and was about to add on his owl's cage when it hooted in her direction. He then noticed Rayne and stopped.

"Sorry," he said quickly. "Everywhere else is full. D'you mind?"

"No." Rayne was surprised when she said no to him and her scar didn't start bleeding. It never failed before; her scar always bled when she did something Master didn't approve of. She figured he wasn't a man yet, only about her age, so the rules didn't apply.

"I'm Harry, by the way," he added, poking a few treats through the bars of his owl's cage. "Harry Potter. Who are you?"

"Rayne," she said simply, and looked out the window.

_I guess it doesn't rain as much in England as it does back home,_ she noted absently, as the rain outside slowed to a light mist.

As Harry sat down, another boy came in bearing red hair and freckles.

"Anyone sitting here?" he asked them both, and they shook their heads.

For a long time following introductions, the two boys rambled about the redhead's brothers, a guy named Voldemort, and something called Quidditch. This Voldemort guy sounded like bad news. Even Master had to exert some kind of effort to kill people; she'd seen him do it. Voldemort was clearly superior.

_No, no no no no, can't be better, no one stronger - _her instincts argued immediately, but Neko interrupted her.

_Rayne, pay attention. What do you feel?_

Rayne stopped for a moment and focused on the scar above her right shoulder. Huh. Absolutely nothing. Funnily enough, she hadn't bled at that thought either. Maybe it only worked when he was close enough to sense her thoughts. She shrugged it off and looked outside again at the rapidly changing scenery flashing past, wondering if she could fly under the radar here like she did at her other schools. Her classmates thus far had all been simple humans, therefore it didn't surprise Rayne that they never noticed her. These were wizards, though. It may have worked on Harry, but not on - what was his name? Ron?

A few more people came in after this - a goofy-looking boy, a know-it-all girl, and two of Ron's brothers - and the only one who stayed more than a minute was the one who demanded to know if Harry Potter was really on the train. He was about to say something snarky, but fell silent when his eyes landed on Rayne and faltered at a smirk.

"I'm Draco Malfoy," he said, and ignored the stifled laughter coming from Ron's direction. "Who might you be?"

"Rayne."

"Rayne. I like that name. First year?"

"Yeah."

"Me too. I hope to see you in Slytherin."

He left for his own compartment, two gargantuans in his wake, and slid the door shut behind him, while Harry and Ron gaped at Rayne, who only shifted her gaze back outside


End file.
